The Space Marines of the Celestial Lions crash onto an unknown world. Alone and friendless, can they reclaim their honour and rebuild their Chapter? Or will they succumb to the multitudes of Xenos and Daemons that abound? Warhammer 40k vs Warhammer Fantasy empire-builder type quest.
A robed figure stands atop a tower in Altdorf. The College of Astromancy boasts the tallest and grandest structure in the whole city, and from its summit the Patriarch of the Celestial Order seeks wisdom from the stars. Vobist the Faint, the sign of Darkness and Uncertainty, seems to rise in the west, while Nuthios comes up from the south to join it. Curious signs indeed, signs of evil perhaps? Grungni's Baldric shines strong, a reminder of the steadfastness of the Dwarves, that at least, the Patriarch is sure, is an auspicious sign.
Indeed the Dawi had made the telescope that the wizard now looks through, while the mountain-folk stand as allies to the Empire of Man, all around there are enemies from the unquiet dead to the rampaging Greenskins, not to mention the darkness that comes of the north! The Patriarch mutters at the portents as he adjusts the dials and levers that control the great mirrors and lenses of the immense spyglass, magic giving his mind clarity, his half-prayers begging for insight enough to guide the Empire in these troubled times.
There is at least one comfort. The Twin Tailed Comet. While sometimes a herald of waxing evil, the Comet has ever safeguarded the Realms of Men, prophesying Sigmar's birth and later the first Emperor's crowning. But as the Patriarch peers closer he sees something else. Something within the Comet.
Horror.
Glory.
War.
The Wizard is entranced, his creased hands grip the controls, his heart thunders, his eyes widen at the vision.
A mighty king, deathless and magnificent. Celestial armadas duelling across a million worlds. Beasts larger than the largest dragon wrestling with immense iron constructs. Grim-faced priests of death, pronouncing the obliteration of entire nations.
In the sight of the telescope the Comet's brilliance shines, but in such radiance the Patriarch perceives it's true form. It's wings beat across the stars, it's talons sharp and ready.
An eagle with twin heads descends upon the world.
The Mallus Compliance
"Lord Captain!" the roar from the first officer comes as the woman frantically tries to staunch the bleeding of her missing eye and mangled face while still maintain control of the ship, "Void Shields are failing, we cannot withstand the friction of the atmosphere!"
From your position on the command throne you take in the devastated bridge. The wounded lie over consoles, half-machine servitors the only ones unaffected by the general chaos as they continue to calmly reel of data. In turn you feel the press of information on your mind from the induction port at the base of your skull as you feel the very ship beginning to crack.
The vector-dance played in the atmosphere of some unknown world, random parts of metal from outlying arrays and vox-casters burning up alongside the ship and forming a double wake as it crashes down. The pict-screen flickers for a moment and in a explosion of sparks one of the servitors begins to spasm, flailing at it's station, trying to escape the bonds of its duty-cage.
Beyond you and above the rim of the planet lies the vast dark wonder of space. Among the darkness you see a few lights, they are:
Choose 1:
[ ] A once great battlefleet, each now stricken as you are, some ships escaping the gravity well of the planet only to freeze in the vacuum through the rents in their hulls, others seemingly doomed to orbit the planet for eternity.
[ ] Your escorts, the comrades of your vessel, now doomed to follow you once again down into destruction.
[ ] Simply parts of your own ship that have already broken off during your descent into the planet's atmosphere.
You feel the reactor surging, the Machine Spirit within straining under the pressure of the descent.
"Divert all power to the engines." you order, calm despite the fury all around, "Magos, our status?"
"This machine screams." is Techpriest's simple reply, his timbred voice strained even when his bionics refuse to show any other sign of stress.
"Our vector?" you call back to your subordinate.
Choose 1:
[ ] The south-western landmass, auspex detect few cities or settlements, the majority of the continent being jungle.
[ ] The southern continent, attached to a larger mass you perceive scattered signs of civilisation amidst hostile terrain like deserts and a single massive mountain range running down from the north.
[ ] A central savannah, broad, yet with rugged hills and smaller ranges of mountains.
[ ] The northern continent, that same enormous mountain range on it's eastern border, with clear signs of habitation, though you know not what.
[ ] A great plateau, volcanic activity clear even from your decaying orbit, surrounded on all sides by tall mountains.
"Get us in over land, somewhere flat if you can. All crew and passengers to shelter as they're able." you continue, course set as best you can with failing engines.
"My lord, what of the mission?" asks another officer, and you think back to your own superiors and the sponsors of your voyage into the black realm. Your masters are:
Choose 1:
[ ] Astra Militarum
The Imperial Guard is the backbone of the Imperium's miltiary might. Even with trillions of soldiers there's always a reason for a captain like yourself to be ferrying armies to some new deployment.
[ ] Adeptus Administratum
The bureaucrats of the vastness of the Imperium of Mankind, the Administratum collect taxes, mobilise whole sectors and in your case, funded an expedition of colonisation to worlds recently reclaimed from the perfidious xenos.
[ ] Ecclesiarchy
The Adeptus Ministorum is the religious hierarchy upholding the worship of the God-Emperor and his Imperial Creed. Its duty is to guide and interpret the innumerable ways that Humanity has found to worship the Emperor, shepherding the myriad worlds of Man along the unsteady path that lies between heresy and true devotion.
[ ] Adeptus Astartes
Sitting outside the traditional bounds of Imperial organisation, the Space Marines, the Emperor's Angels of Death, are the tip of the spear. Genetically enhanced, immortal and with every advantage, these might warriors stand against the evils of the galaxy and you're proud to assist them.
[ ] Adeptus Mechanicus
The Priesthood of Mars build and maintain all Imperial technology from the basest rifle to the most complex manufactoriums. To the half-machines, all knowledge is the sacred elimination of the Omnissiah, and your voyage was patronised as another step on the Quest for Knowledge.
[ ] REDACTED
You don't know anything and you don't want to know anything.
"They will understand." you reply, "Take us in, and remember... the Emperor protects!"
Welcome to my new quest. I've had the idea for a while, based on a couple of ideas and things I've previously read. Here you'll direct the forces of an Imperial taskforce to bring a planet into Imperial Compliance. This planet happens to be Mallus, the setting of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. WFB and 40k exist in different mediums although they're occasionally referenced, and I'm interested in writing a quest which will look at a clash between the two.
This will be a sort of ck2, or civilisation type quest rather than centred around a specific person. Here you choose the size of your starting force, it's initial constitution, and your landing place. For example, a quest around a single division of Imperial Guard stuck in Lustria would play significantly differently to half a fleet of Admech crashing in the Dark Lands.
In the next initial chapters you'll decide more specifically on various points like whether you have any attached forces or whether you have tanks vs artillery. To be more specific on this in case of questions, you can decide here to be Space Marines, then next chapter you'll decide whether you're a particular Chapter, the specialisation, and so on. Keep in mind you'll only get some things if you pick particular choices. No one by the Admech get Titans for example.
Keep in mind a few details, for example, if you're in a larger fleet they'll be more of you, and you'll have access to more things and types of troops for example. Comparably, a smaller force might go without arousing attention from various native powers for longer. Your objective a I say is to bring the planet into Compliance, which might mean to conquer it.
With this quest in particular I'm interested in examining the premise which I haven't seen looked at before generally, as well as some of the broader points around outside context problems and societal development.
No plans for the moment please, just a vote in each of the categories. Oh also I'm going to try and run this across multiple boards which should be interesting. Forgot to mention that in the first posting.
[X] A once great battlefleet, each now stricken as you are, some ships escaping the gravity well of the planet only to freeze in the vacuum through the rents in their hulls, others seemingly doomed to orbit the planet for eternity.
[X] The northern continent, that same enormous mountain range on it's western border, with clear signs of habitation, though you know not what.
[X] Adeptus Mechanicus
[X] A once great battlefleet, each now stricken as you are, some ships escaping the gravity well of the planet only to freeze in the vacuum through the rents in their hulls, others seemingly doomed to orbit the planet for eternity.
[X] The southern continent, attached to a larger mass you perceive scattered signs of civilisation amidst hostile terrain like deserts and a single massive mountain range running down from the north.
[X] Adeptus Mechanicus
[X] Your escorts, the comrades of your vessel, now doomed to follow you once again down into destruction.
[X] The southern continent, attached to a larger mass you perceive scattered signs of civilisation amidst hostile terrain like deserts and a single massive mountain range running down from the north.
[X] Adeptus Mechanicus
[X] A once great battlefleet, each now stricken as you are, some ships escaping the gravity well of the planet only to freeze in the vacuum through the rents in their hulls, others seemingly doomed to orbit the planet for eternity.
[X] A great plateau, volcanic activity clear even from your decaying orbit, surrounded on all sides by tall mountains.
[X] Adeptus Mechanicus
[X] A once great battlefleet, each now stricken as you are, some ships escaping the gravity well of the planet only to freeze in the vacuum through the rents in their hulls, others seemingly doomed to orbit the planet for eternity.
[X] A great plateau, volcanic activity clear even from your decaying orbit, surrounded on all sides by tall mountains.
[X] Adeptus Mechanicus
[ ] The south-eastern landmass, auspex detect few cities or settlements, the majority of the continent being jungle. @FractiousDay did you mean "south-western landmass"?
Ah yes, a small group of Imperial Guard in Lustria would be an interesting game. A very short game, but interesting.
Space Marines would be funny if we use really old Fantasy Canon where Chaos Space Marines occasionally wandered out of the Chaos Wastes. And so everyone assumes we're Chaos.
Adeptus Mechanicus would weep at the lack of technology, and struggle to obtain the staggering amount of resources needed to keep them running.
Ecclesiarchy would get in yelling matches against so many other faiths. Faiths that have straight up casters. Which would be something of a shocker to them, I'd imagine.
The Administratum would... um... I don't know. I honestly have no idea what they would do. Can they even function when in scenarios not covered by paperwork?
The Inquisition is a crapshoot. Could go anywhere from Exterminatus to going native to going fuck this shit I'm out.
@FractiousDay so er if you're on an experimental roll I have two suggestions for you when you want to try.
1. Space marine exiles on Mallus be it Commander Hairgel or someone else like Dark Angel Fallen or a space marine ship that got lost because of the warp.
[X] Your escorts, the comrades of your vessel, now doomed to follow you once again down into destruction.
[X] The southern continent, attached to a larger mass you perceive scattered signs of civilisation amidst hostile terrain like deserts and a single massive mountain range running down from the north.
[X] Adeptus Mechanicus
You have a strange view of the Mechanicus, if you think the Inquisition is more inhuman (barring Radicals, who may or may not have rejected their humanity).
You have a strange view of the Mechanicus, if you think the Inquisition is more inhuman (barring Radicals, who may or may not have rejected their humanity).
[X] A once great battlefleet, each now stricken as you are, some ships escaping the gravity well of the planet only to freeze in the vacuum through the rents in their hulls, others seemingly doomed to orbit the planet for eternity.
[X] The northern continent, that same enormous mountain range on it's western border, with clear signs of habitation, though you know not what.
[X] Adeptus Astartes
It's quite fun when you imagine it in the style of dawn of war 2 and the tactical mode gets more interesting. All your officers talk about their current situation as they meet the locals.
The psykers get to unlock new abilities thanks to the winds of magic.
Oh also I'm going to try and run this across multiple boards which should be interesting. Forgot to mention that in the first post. Just an FYI to everyone.
Oh also I'm going to try and run this across multiple boards which should be interesting. Forgot to mention that in the first post. Just an FYI to everyone.
Sort of an experiment. I've only seen it done a couple of times but no I'm not going to run 3 separate quests, that way madness lies. It'll be a simple majority I think, if 4 people here vote for X but 8 vote for Y then Y will win. I'm especially interest to see what different boards and the 'culture' of different boards will vote on for different issues. My previous quest looked into this meta approach around questing itself a bit and I'll be partially continuing that here. I'll run it like this probably for the first arc and then assess it.
[X] A once great battlefleet, each now stricken as you are, some ships escaping the gravity well of the planet only to freeze in the vacuum through the rents in their hulls, others seemingly doomed to orbit the planet for eternity.
[X] A great plateau, volcanic activity clear even from your decaying orbit, surrounded on all sides by tall mountains.
[X] REDACTED
[X] Your escorts, the comrades of your vessel, now doomed to follow you once again down into destruction.
[X] The southern continent, attached to a larger mass you perceive scattered signs of civilisation amidst hostile terrain like deserts and a single massive mountain range running down from the north.
[X] Adeptus Mechanicus
